-It's Raining
I ran toward the direction the scream had come from. It was the very same direction the zombies had been running from.
The alley was packed full of zombies, so it was hard to pick up speed.
The horde of fleeing zombies was still streaming through, but perhaps the scream had frightened them, because they had all come to a dead stop.
“Coming through!”
This time, I was the one who had to ask the zombies to move aside.
But then the zombies deeper inside the alley suddenly turned and started running back. They had stopped fleeing and were going back toward the place they had run from.
“Gil!”
“Gil!”
The zombies were calling Gil’s name.
I ran after them. They seemed to know where Gil was.
“Please help me!”
By the time another scream rang out, I was able to spot Gil. Punk-styled young men were holding Gil by both sides and dragging him away.
It looked like they were trying to kidnap him. At the far end of the alley, I could see a van waiting with its door open.
“Stop!”
I needed to get over there before they shoved Gil into the van, but the zombies running ahead of me made it impossible to move forward.
“Move! Get out of the way!”
I shouted, but the zombies did not move aside. If anything, in their haste, they clumped together and blocked my path even more.
A rough voice came from the other side of the alley.
“Hah! What’s with these zombie bastards? You were running away a second ago, so why’d you come back? You wanna come with us too, huh? Fine. Die with this kid.”
“Come here, you filthy bastards!”
I caught a glimpse of the punk youths swinging their weapons savagely. There were heavy thuds, and screams burst from the zombies.
“Get away! Everyone, run!”
I heard Gil shouting at the zombies to flee.
The narrow alley was utter chaos. It was the middle of the night, rain was falling, and thug-like bastards were running wild in a residential neighborhood.
For some reason, they were tormenting the zombies and trying to kidnap Gil.
Even though the zombies and Gil were screaming, no one looked out.
That was better, if anything. From here on, I was planning to make a scene myself.
I had already drawn up my mana. But because the zombies were blocking my path, using attack magic from where I stood was not an easy option.
I wrapped mana waves around my body and controlled the force of gravity. Lifting myself into the air, I leapt lightly as if flying over the zombies’ heads.
“Wh-what the hell? Who’s that?”
One of the punk youths spotted me first and shouted.
“Huh? How’s he jumping around in midair?”
“Is that bastard a zombie too?”
Everyone’s eyes turned toward me.
By then, I had lightly dropped down in front of the zombies who had been getting beaten. The punk youths who had been striking them stepped back a few paces.
The ones dragging Gil had already gotten as far as the van.
“Let that kid go right now!”
I said, taking a step toward them.
“What the hell are you?”
The guy gripping Gil by the scruff of the neck shouted.
His hair was dyed blue, and his face was hung all over with piercings. His eyes were rather fierce.
“Master Mage!”
Gil, finally noticing me, shouted.
“What? A mage?”
“No way. That’s... that mage from back then, isn’t it?”
Now that I looked, the men standing in front of the van were familiar.
They were the very men who had been kidnapping me in a van on the day I fell into this world, and it was that very van.
“Aha. So it was you bastards? Perfect timing.”
At my words, the ones who recognized me began inching backward.
But Blue Hair was different. He lifted his chin even higher and spat out in a temperamental tone.
“Master Mage, just keep walking. This is our business, so don’t stick your nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
From the look of it, he seemed to be the leader of the punk youths.
But I had thought they were just neighborhood punks, and now he was calling it business? Did kidnapping count as business these days?
I grew curious about the true nature of this business of theirs.
“I’m asking nicely. Let that kid go.”
“What’s it to you? Is this beggar bastard your brother or something? You don’t look alike at all. Hey! Everybody, get ready to fight! Mage or whatever, let’s wreck him.”
Blue Hair shouted boldly. I wasn’t sure whether to call him brave or reckless. In a word, he had no fear.
“X, he’s a mage. We shouldn’t get involved with him.”
“And that mage isn’t ordinary. Last time, we were definitely hauling off an old man, but then he suddenly turned young. He transformed into that mage!”
“He just came flying through the air, too. I don’t think fighting a mage is a good idea.”
The men in front of the van whispered to Blue Hair. At least they seemed to have some sense.
Inwardly, I also hoped they would simply let Gil go and back down.
Using magic against ordinary people in a residential alley was not something I wanted to do.
Even for a mage, it was not as though magic could be used without restrictions. If one used magic against ordinary people in a public place, there would be an investigation afterward.
Of course, no matter how I looked at them, I couldn’t exactly call these guys good, ordinary citizens.
“Are you scared? Is this all we amount to? That mage isn’t ordinary? Then do I look ordinary to you?”
Blue Hair, called X, paid no attention to his companions’ advice.
“What a joke! You thought I’d obediently back off just because you’re a mage? There are plenty of lousy mages in the world, you know. You think you’re the first one who’s gone down to me? Let’s see what you’ve got.”
He ostentatiously threw Gil to the ground, then began rolling up his sleeves.
At first, I was dumbfounded. Was he suggesting we have a fistfight, mage against punk?
But soon, I saw with my own eyes why he had been so full of himself.
“Well, Master Mage? Let’s see you use that wonderful magic of yours!”
Blue Hair bared his teeth in a grin and shouted.
Metal gleamed on the forearm of the right arm he had raised. X was body-modified.
Aha. So that’s what he was relying on when he ran his mouth like that.
A weapon had been installed in X’s arm. Not attached to it, but an artificial prosthetic connected directly to his body.
In this world, where the biotech industry was extraordinarily advanced, procedures to strengthen the body by placing artificial prosthetics inside it were popular, not only biological modifications.
While biological modification was an expensive surgery, body modification could be done through comparatively cheap and simple procedures, so I had heard that many in the underworld underwent it.
Those who had strengthened their bodies that way were called the body-modified.
X’s body modification was a mechanical device implanted in his arm that fired bullets. And perhaps that was not all.
I quickly scanned the inside of X’s body with detection magic.
Sure enough, I sensed mechanical devices along his spine. The joints in his lower body had also been reinforced with metal.
“X, are we seriously fighting a mage?”
“Ah, damn it...!”
The other punk youths grumbled, but as if they had no choice, they raised their weapons and took fighting stances.
It seemed not all of them were body-modified. Their weapons were things like swords and axes. The only things attached to their bodies were piercings.
But it appeared those piercings were not merely accessories.
“No need to piss yourselves just because he’s a mage! All of you have mana-blocking chips on, don’t you? You think the organization gave you those for nothing? They gave them to you so you could fight!”
X touched one of his piercings and swaggered. This time, his incitement worked.
“To hell with it. Let’s go!”
“If he can’t use mana, a mage isn’t much.”
“Let’s chop him up with an axe!”
While they yelled and worked up their fighting spirit, I quietly raised my mana waves.
How pitiful. To think they’d trust in cheap little mana-blocking chips and recklessly attack a mage.
They were cheap. Those mana-blocking chips could probably stop a novice mage at best.
Against me, they wouldn’t even come close.
The men raised their weapons and edged toward me.
Rain was falling. It was light enough that no one paid it any mind, but for me, it was useful rain.
Raindrops clung all over the punk youths’ faces and the weapons they held aloft.
“Well now, it’s raining. And of all weather, you chose a day like this to fight me?”
When I said that, the approaching men faltered.
“What’s he talking about?”
“He’s just trying to act cool, probably.”
“Crazy bastard.”
The punk youths, not yet completely rid of their fear, blustered loudly. They were doing it on purpose to hide how afraid they were.
But X truly seemed to look down on me, and he burst into loud laughter.
“Hahaha! Now I’ve heard everything. The weather? So what if it’s raining?”
As he spoke, X thrust his raised arm toward me. For an instant, malice flashed in his eyes. At the same time, fire flickered from the mechanical device mounted on his forearm.
“Die!”
He shouted. But the mechanical device never fired its bullet. I was just a little faster.
“Freeze!”
I swung both hands toward the punk youths and sent out my mana waves.
The intent I carried on those mana waves was simple. The environment was perfectly suited for it.
The whole world was water. On a day like this, when rain was falling, there was no better time to use freezing magic. It was practically my world.
The necessary element was already prepared in abundance. All I had to do was slightly alter the nature of the water with my mana waves.
The rain was falling with the acceleration of gravity, but the mana waves transformed the water element at the speed of intent.
The falling rain and the rain-soaked world froze in an instant, and the world came to a halt.
Frost spread outward, drawing patterns as it went. Even the air began to freeze in a bluish hue.
Slice!
Shhk!
The metal attached to the punk youths’ bodies and the weapons in their hands froze, becoming blades of ice that cut into their bodies.
Even so, they could not move an inch.
Aaaagh!
Save me!
What the hell is going on?
Even their screams froze, unable to come out as sound.
The punk youths, their eyes wide open, were screaming only inside their minds.
“Waaah! Master Mage!”
“Master Mage is the best!”
“Thank you. Thank you for saving us!”
The voices came from behind me. The zombies who had been getting beaten by the punk youths cheered.
“Gil!”
“Gil! Are you okay?”
It was the zombies who took care of Gil, collapsed on the ground, before anyone else. They surrounded Gil and helped him up.
“I’m fine. I told you to run, so why did you come back? You all could have been in serious trouble.”
“How could we run away by ourselves when Gil got caught?”
“What would you have done if you all got caught together?”
“Thankfully, Master Mage came to save us. Gil, you’re really okay, right?”
The sight of them worrying about one another was pleasant to see. They said they had lived together on the streets, and they really did look like family.
I slowly approached Gil.
Gil was all right. The freezing magic had activated while carefully avoiding him.
Last time, I had only belatedly discovered Gil among the zombies, but this time, I had used magic from the beginning in order to save him.
Still, I could see wounds here and there on his face and body where those bastards had hit him.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m completely fine. Master Mage, thank you so much. You saved me again. But how did you know to come here?”
“This is the way home. Let’s go home.”
I supported Gil.
Despite how violent the situation had been, gentle mana waves, like a soft breeze, were flowing from Gil.